Sequoia Capital-backed unicorn electric scooter hire startup Bird Rides Inc. is taking a new path by offering its new scooters for sale to the public.

Bird’s so-called next-generation electric scooter, dubbed “Bird One,” is claimed to be more durable, powerful and longer-lasting than previous versions. While primarily designed to be part of the company’s sharing business, the company is confident that people may wish to buy them as well. It doesn’t come cheap, however, with a list price of $1,299.

The electric scooter hire business has become a proxy war, alongside bike sharing, for the broader ride-hailing business. Both Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. are players in the broader market.

Despite rumors in December that Uber was looking to acquire it, Bird remains an independently owned company. Its main competitors include LimeBike Inc., backed by GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc., and Lyft through the multibranded service it acquired from Motivate International Inc. in November. Having failed to acquire Bird, Uber was reported in December to have hired engineers to develop its own self-driving bikes and e-scooter sharing business.

The utility of going from e-scooter sharing service to selling the same scooters in arguably questionable, however. As Don Reisinger at Fortune argued, “why would anyone pay $1,300 for Bird’s new scooter? The company has not only built its business on scooter sharing, but its customers have been conditioned to share — not buy — scooters,” Reisinger wrote.

Bird argues otherwise. “Bird One builds on the benefits and learnings of Bird Zero and is forecasted to last in the sharing environment for well over a year,” Travis VanderZanden, founder and chief executive officer of Bird, said in a statement. “Given the excitement and demand for our next generation e-scooter, we are also making a limited supply of Bird Ones available to own. Now, whether you want to share, rent or own, Bird provides an option for everyone.”

The decision to sell e-scooters to the general public comes after Bird launched a platform for others to own their own e-scooter hire business in March. Bird’s franchising platform was an attempt by the company to turn itself into the McDonald’s of e-scooter hire. Unless Bird is particularly shy in its media releases, nearly two months later the number of franchises Bird has signed up comes in at zero.

Photo: Bird